One of the most talked about films of this year’s festival was ‘Nebraska’. It even ended up on my top five favorite films of the festival. Originally, star Bruce Dern was meant to come out for the screening and receive the Lifetime Achievement Award that has previously gone to the likes of Roy Disney, Jeff Daniels, and Morgan Freeman, but he was unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances. However, in his place, his co-star Will Forte and director Alexander Payne came out for an engaging Q&A with the audience at the Prince Music Theater. But prior to the event, the pair walked the red carpet and chatted with some press, including yours truly!

In part one of our coverage of this red carpet, Zach of The Pretentious Film Majors spoke to Payne about the benefits of film school, making movies in the state of Nebraska, and his journey since making ‘Election’. You can see the whole interview in the video below:

Were you able to catch the screening of ‘Nebraska’? Was it one of your favorites of the festival as well? Let us know by sending us a tweet at us at @PhillyFilmSoc or by leaving us a comment on our Facebook page.

Last night, we kicked off the 22nd annual Philadelphia Film Festival in a HUGE way. If you missed out on the festivities at the Kimmel Center and Del Frisco’s, don’t worry because it was just the beginning of all the fun to be had at this year’s Festival. However, in a program of over 90 films, it might be a little hard to decide what to see. Luckily, my Pretentious Film Majors colleague, Zachary Shevich, had a chance to catch up with the Philadelphia Film Society’s Artistic Director Michael Lerman in order to chat about the ongoing Festival and some films that are definitely worth checking out.

Prior to the Festival, a few of the programmers assembled the film society members together for an exclusive member only curator event to talk about what to expect out of this year’s line up and some gems that might be over looked in the program guide. Check out the video below to see which films Michael and Zach suggest you make a part of your schedule over the next few days:

If you’re still stumped about which films to check out during this festival, keep an eye out for some of my most anticipated films, along with exclusive interviews, giveaways, and announcements from PFF22 right here on the Philadelphia Film Society blog.

As of this morning, there is officially one week remaining in our Kickstarter campaign to get the Roxy Theater back to it’s former glory. And thanks to the 395 incredible backers so far, we’ve reached our goal of $40,000.00! With this post, we’d like to extend our most sincere thanks to everyone who contributed to the cause to restore the last remaining independent theater in Center City.

This year marked my first time attending the Berlinale. Having never been to Berlin before, and knowing the importance of the Festival, I was very excited for the trip. Every Festival is a very distinct experience, and Berlinale is no exception. The industry presence is overwhelmingly international, even more so than Cannes, largely because of the proximity to Sundance (Berlin starts about 2 weeks after).

Just got back from the Sundance Film Festival and I’m happy to report that there are some great things in store for filmgoers this year. After many sleepless nights, long hours in lines and some plowing through screeners in front of my laptop, I’ve managed to sift through 90+ movies. Some incredible gems, some duds, plenty of things I’m excited to follow up with and hopefully bring to Philly in the fall. What will make the cut? You’ll just have to wait and see. But, in the meantime, there are some great Sundance hits just around the corner. This spring will see the release of Shane Carruth’s eagerly anticipated and beautifully enigmatic Upstream Color, his second feature since he won Sundance with his time-travel masterpiece Primer. Slated for a March release, Upstream Color is a major piece of cinema that is not to be missed.

Last Friday, the whole line up for this year’s Philadelphia Film Festival went live. Hopefully in the week that it’s been available, you’ve noticed that there’s a great selection this year, but for you newbies (or even some of you veteran festival goers), it might be a little overwhelming when you’re trying to decide which films to see. So, for your benefit, I took the liberty of polling some of the Philadelphia Film Society office staff to see what movies they’re most excited to see on this year’s schedule.

This weekend, the new movie from the hometown writing/directing team Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, ‘The Words’, opens in theaters everywhere. Featuring fellow Philly boy Bradley Cooper, as well as Jeremy Irons, Dennis Quaid, Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, Ben Barnes, and J.K. Simmons, the film tells the story of Rory Jansen, a struggling writer who finds fame after passing off a lost manuscript as his own novel and then deals with the consequences of stealing another man’s words.

Watch Trailers for IFC’s HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE and AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY to Win Tickets to YOUR SISTER’S SISTER!

YOUR SISTER’S SISTER is a favorite film in the PFS office and we are very excited to offer up a pair of Run of Engagement tickets for you to see the film during any showing Mon – Thurs after the film opens June 22, 2012 at the Ritz Five in Philadelphia! All you have to do to win the passes is watch two trailers of fantastic, upcoming documentaries from IFC Films and Sundance Selects and answer a question about each trailer.